"Benchmarking - A Valid Strategy For The Long Term? "

Abstract

The present paper work deals with a popular method for developing requirements and setting goals - benchmarking. It contains general aspects about this powerful performance improvement tool, including types of benchmarking, steps to follow in Benchmarking analysis, its goals, the benefits in using it and some dangers caused by using it, also; the whole paperwork can be considered as being a plea for continuous, ongoing, unending improvement in management context and sustains the idea that benchmarking enables decision-makers to understand exactly how much improvement they will need to accomplish in order to achieve superior performance. We decided to broach this issue because even if it is an actual one, none of the existing articles did not attempt to answer whether or not benchmarking is a valid long-term strategy that should be implemented by nowaday's companies. The case study examines the benchmarking initiatives taken by Xerox, one of the world's leading copier companies, as a part of its 'Leadership through Quality' program; the case discusses the benchmarking concept and its implementation in various processes at Xerox and it also explores the positive impact of benchmarking practices on this company. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]